Some Vacation Catch-up

Logistics deemed that for our trip home to New York Judah and Daniel would fly Southwest while the girls and I would fly Delta. I must say that those Southwest flying boys had better snacks. Thankfully Judah did awesome on all the planes; he, not surprisingly, melted hearts all across the United States of America. I love this picture of him hanging out, waiting to get on the next airplane.

My time flying with the girls was not so serene. The initial set of flights coming home were the best I have ever had. The flights back to New Mexico... not so much. First, Eve and I got separated when we tried to ride the train at the Atlanta airport. It was the most awful thing I have ever experienced. Eve, Eliza, and I were trying to get on the train - Eve was a couple steps in front of me - when an older woman literally shoved me out of the way so her husband could get on in front of me. Remember I had a baby on my hip! Because the woman shoved me out of the way, Eve got on the train but I could not. The door started to shut but I shouted and stuck my hand in between; the door quickly re-opened but then shut again. Seeing the absolute terror on my little girl's face as the train pulled away from me was something I will never be able to erase from my mind. I stood there on the platform and wept. I wish I had known, as I stood there crying, that God had provided two very protective angels for my girl. There was a middle-age couple from our flight to Atlanta who had gotten on the train and saw the whole thing; the woman held Eve and her husband held Eve's bag - I saw this when I was finally able to get to where Eve was. Oh, how I wanted to hug that man and that woman. The wife was literally banging on the window of my train as it pulled up. God, bless those people. Eve and I sat on the floor in the middle of that busy train platform and hugged for the longest time, but my heart will never fully recover.

Secondly, Eliza cried the entire three hour and fifteen minute second flight. The people seated around me kept giving me evil looks. Like, make that baby shut-up, kind of looks. As if I was pinching her or something. And the flight attendant took an hour to get me a stupid spoon. All I wanted to do was feed my baby her cereal! It was bad; I walked off that plane and promptly handed Eliza to Daniel. This mama and that baby needed some serious space from each other.

A more comical story... On our way back from North Carolina (and Washington D.C. - be still my heart!) Daniel and I stopped in Harrisburg PA.; we were looking for a gas station and a Starbucks. At the Starbucks Daniel decided I should go in and get the (much needed) coffee; I like to make my coffee taste good rather than drinking it black like he does. Ick. Being the good girl I am I crossed the street by way of the handy-dandy crosswalk. As I was crossing a car approached, it neither stopped or slowed down... like at all! The woman was so close to hitting me that if I had taken one more step she literally would have run me over. I know this because I kicked her car as she drove past me. And you'd better believe I kicked it hard. Don't mess with this red-headed woman... I have children and a husband who need me to do their laundry and cook their meals! I can't die yet!

All in all, it was a fantastic vacation filled to the brim with mostly great memories. I wish I could write them all down just so I could make sure to remember. But, for one thing, that would be boring to anyone who reads this, except perhaps Daniel. Or my mother. And, sometimes it seems that writing down memories takes some of the specialness away from them. So, I'll just leave them in my heart.

And now we are back to reality....

The first day of real life kind of stunk but I'm getting use to it. Daniel is taking classes as a full time student this semester along with working full time. It's not going to be easy but I have felt God's amazing grace these last few days. I have a peace in my heart that I can't fully understand; I simply know we will make it work. And I can guarantee you that this next seven weeks will not even come close to touching the stress and hard times we went through with Daniel recruiting. Truly, in comparison, this feels like a cake walk.

Even so, if I start to sound a little more nutty than usual, you'll know why. Just tell me to go eat some chocolate or, better yet, send me some wine....